BOHEMIAN VALHALLA... My Love Affair with Found Treasures and living the Bohemian Lifestyle...

Monday, October 27, 2014

A Different Type Of Fear

Fear... it's such a visceral reaction... so Primal that everyone experiences it in one form or another. And to be sure there are forms of Fears... different types of Fear in fact. And Today's Post is going to explore and focus upon that Dark Mystery... and Mysterious it certainly is!

The almost unexplainable Mystery of why some types of Fear are Fun and we Crave them or will even Pay to be Scared and get that heady Rush of Adrenalin that type of Fear evokes. And other types, you know the ones... those that could keep you up all Night with Worry and Anxiety... and, well, we avoid at all costs... or at least try valiantly to!!

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Yeah, I don't know anyone whose told me THAT type of Fear is Fun or they'd buy a ticket for the Ride that it would take you on mentally, emotionally or physically! Au Contraire... no matter how much of an Adrenalin Junkie you might happen to be, that type of Fear is not something even you want to Endure or Face full on!!!

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And why is that? How can it be that something as Primal as Fear and the gut reaction it involuntarily Creates that appears so simple and Organic on the surface... can be so complex that we Enjoy types of it tremendously and it titillates us, leaving us hungry for MORE... and other types repel us completely and we'd never voluntarily expose ourselves to THAT type unless we had a complete breach of Sanity!?

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I'll give you a simple example: Fun Fear could be going through a Haunted Attraction... filled to the brim with those Fear based Experiences and Scenarious that really Rock you to your Core and be the authentic stuff of your Nightmares and Phobias. Things that for sure can Scare the living Hell out of you and yet make you laugh and want to go through it again and again... eager in fact to be Scared like THAT!

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And that OTHER type of Fear... the payment is due and you have absolutely no Idea how you'll come up with the money... or the Doctor gave you that grim diagnosis nobody wants to hear about that now you or a Loved One must Face and attempt to Deal with. Oh, but Dawn, one is only Pretend... that is why... you might say. Okay, so lets Roll with that explanation for a second... lets just say that the Lender or the Doc then lets out a hearty laugh and said they were only kidding. What they just said wasn't Real, they just wanted to Scare you... Ha ha ha! Oh... but YOU'RE NOT laughing are you?

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I can lay money down that you're not only NOT laughing, but you're pretty upset, maybe even angry as Hell and don't want anyone to EVER do something to Scare you like THAT again!!! No... you're NOT having Fun with that kind of a Scare and you weren't at all titillated or amused in any way! But wait, it wasn't REAL, it was Manufactured just like those Scares you just Paid to Experience in the Haunted Attraction! Scares that on the surface seem much more Frightening... or ARE THEY REALLY?

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And lets go deeper shall we? If you can't make the payment and say they Foreclose on the House in that one Scenario... it's not as if you couldn't go out and buy another one at some point in the Future, after all, they're still making them you know! *Winks*

Or you lost that Job... or they're saying you could lose that Job... why does that seem to Terrify you more in an 'That Ain't Funny or Fun' way than the Realistic looking Axe Murderer you just encountered in the Haunted Attraction?

Is it really possible or Realistic that you will NEVER, EVER find Work of any kind again? So that possibility, however remote, strikes Terror in your Heart? Or is it much more possible that the Fear of the Unknown ... the 'How Long Before I Find Work Again?' is just that much more Frightening in Reality than we give it credit for?

Is it that in your Psyche you never REALLY Believe or think that you're going to be killed by an Axe Murderer even if he's the stuff of your worst Nightmares... or anyone else's really because who wouldn't be Terrified in Real Life by a Homicidal Maniac... but that Job loss, now that COULD HAPPEN to anyone... at any time... and have unemployment for an undetermined length of time that isn't yet known and would certainly be a Life Changer?

Is it the potential length of the Scare... or the prospect of Suffering and having to Endure or Facing our Fears for an extended period of Time the tipping point on what we want Exposure to... or can realistically get through intact and recover from?

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After all, the Haunted Attraction might be a pretty Fierce Scare and cause us to Confront many Intense Fears of all types for perhaps an hour or so... but some Life Issues that are Scary could last exhaustingly longer... perhaps even indefinitely... or Perceived as such. And lets face it, Perception is everything, isn't it? The "How am I going to Survive this?" factor comes into play in the Fight or Flight Instinct that is an Instinctive Reaction to a Fearful Situation!

Once you know you can Survive something, or at least Believe you can, the Fear Factor definitely subsides and diminishes and there is a measure of Relief or Hope Renewed that the Danger isn't as Grave. Even if it is... the Survival Instinct is as such feeding you data on your situation and options, or lack thereof, and you are processing it at warp speed and weighing your Odds.

And lets face it, some things don't have to kill you to Scare you and strike Fear into your Heart or keep you awake at Night. There's so many things we can be Fearful of that we absolutely know won't kill us or that we could be certain we'd Recover from with very little, if any, collateral damage really. But are nonetheless Worrisome and still evoke that Primal Instinct of should I bolt from it or stand and Fight for it?

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Such things as Pursuing Dreams or Relationships that are perhaps NOT gonna work out, but we WANT them to. And yet we realize that all the Wanting in the World will not Ensure they'll Prosper or Survive... the 'Thing' could or even will Die... we will not, we KNOW that. But it's the Death of that 'Thing', whatever it is that we Value... that Dream or that Relationship that is some Scary stuff and we'll have to Emotionally and Physically Deal with to try to keep it Alive... attempt to Resurrect... or Grieve over the Loss of and move through the Stages of Grief all the same in order to move on.

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It could even be the Loss or Prospect of a Loss of a more tangent 'Thing'... like losing your Stuff! *Gasp!* Yeah, we can get pretty Attached to our Stuff too, can't we? And it's not as if we'll never get Stuff again... there's plenty of Stuff to go around... and then some... but it's OUR Stuff and that Relationship with it can be pretty Intense and quite the Love Affair too!!!

And it doesn't always matter how many times we've Experienced such things, such Losses. necessarily... or even for the first time. I've lost Stuff, lost Dreams, lost Relationships, lost Loved Ones, lost Health, lost Careers or Jobs, lost Passion or even Desire in the Past... the Present... and probably will in the Future... and you probably have too, to varying degrees depending upon your particular Circumstances. No matter how often it happens, a little or a lot, that OTHER Fear is still a difficult one, isn't it?

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It's still gonna be one of those "I don't want to Deal with this..." types of Fear rather than those other types that can be Craved or even be Entertaining and Fun in their warped and Morbid way by so many. There are complete Industries Prospering from our Love of Fear and being Scared... but just enough... and not too much now!!! Each seems to know what they can Handle... or NOT!

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Each Adrenalin Junkie knows that the Good Scares, opposed to the Bad Scares, can heighten ALL of the Senses in a way that no drug could ever match. That Built-In Rush that Instinct kicks into High Gear and which can Fuel us better than anything we could possibly consume. Doing something Afraid can actually turn out Good and have a Happy Ending, Facing one's Fears can sometimes alleviate them or at least Calm them to a degree that makes it more Manageable and less Intimidating or Paralyzing.

Yes, how we React to the different types of Fear is indeed quite Mysterious and is Individually as Unique as each of us is. Sometimes even shaped and based upon the Filters by which we've Lived our Lives and what we've been Exposed to as the 'Norm' or 'Socially Acceptable'... depending on Experiences, Culture, Upbringing, Socioeconomics and what we've Learned to "Get Used To" and Accept as our Lot in Life, thus being no longer as Scary or Debilitating to us in order to Function Daily because we've had to Adapt in such a way.

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I don't know for Certain what different types of Fear you will Embrace, be repelled by, run towards or Attempt to Avoid completely... but I've got a pretty good Idea that the Humanity in all of us will dictate some of it... and we will ALL, every last one of us, have to Deal with it in our own ways...

And we will continue to Ponder some of the Mysteries of the Universe some more Together... if you Dare... have a Happily Frightful Halloween my Friends... Blessings from the Arizona Desert... Dawn... The Bohemian﻿

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About Me

Welcome... I'm Dawn...I'm an Artist and retired from the Corporate world so I now have time to pursue my Art and my passions. I'm also a Full Time Caregiver to my wonderful Husband and two Special Needs G-Kids, we have three grown children, Twenty-three Grandchildren (to date), two of which we're raising and I have Adopted, Five Great-Grandchildren and a Cat. We're coming to you from the Arizona Desert. I have a love affair with all things old, salvage architecture and found treasures. I'm a Bohemian Spirit and surrounding myself with my time worn treasures is my Bohemian Valhalla.